Knitwear having an open part in a body tubular part may include, for example, cardigan, jacket, or one-piece dress having slit formed at the hem, and the like. When knitting a cardigan using a flat knitting machine, a front body is divided into a right front body and a left front body, and open parts are formed in the left and right front bodies. The cardigan is knitted similar to when knitting a sweater with overlapping portions of the open part of the right front body and the open part of the left front body abutted to each other. Specifically, a body is knitted from a hem part, sleeves are knitted from a cuff part, and the sleeves are knitted in a continuous tubular form while the body is knitted in a discontinuous tubular form at the middle of a front body. The body tubular part and the sleeve tubular parts are then joined together at the armhole parts.
In the case of a cardigan, an open part is normally closed by buttons, and thus a front body is knitted so that the closing portions of the open parts overlap. Since such overlapping portions are necessary in the front body, the length in a knitting width direction of the knitted fabric of the entire front body with the right front body and the left front body abutted at the overlapping portion of the open parts becomes longer than the length in the knitting width direction of the knitted fabric of the back body.
Conventionally, as shown in Patent Document 1, the body tubular part is knitted so that the number of loops held on a front needle bed and the number of loops held on a back needle bed become substantially the same up to an armpit position. Since the loops held on the front and back needle beds are substantially the same number, the body is knitted in a tubular form by return knitting through a so-called C-shaped knitting with an appropriate number of loops forming the side part of the front body rotated toward the needle bed on which the loops of the knitted fabric of the back body are held. In other words, the front and back bodies are knitted in a tubular form through the C-shaped knitting with the boundary of the knitted fabric of the front body and the knitted fabric of the back body positioned on the back needle bed on which the loops of the knitted fabric of the back body are held.
In the knitting method shown in Patent Document 1, knitting is performed while reducing the loops on the knitted fabric of the front body so that the boundary of the front and back knitted fabrics of the body is positioned between the front and back needle beds before joining the body tubular part and the sleeve tubular parts. Specifically, knitting is performed with an opening formed at the open part widened in a V-neck shape by reducing the loops of the front body. Simultaneously, the loops on the boundary side of the front body rotated toward the back body side are returned to the front needle bed using empty needles obtained by reducing the loops. By thus knitting, the loops of the knitted fabric of the front body are all held on the front needle bed and the loops of the knitted fabric of the back body are all held on the back needle bed at the armpit, that is, a joining starting position of the body tubular part and the sleeve tubular parts. Knitting is then performed in such a state towards the shoulder while integrating and return knitting the sleeve tubular parts and the body tubular part in a tubular form.
In Patent Document 1, the following two methods are proposed as a knitting method of joining while reducing the loops of the front body. In one method, the boundary of the right front body and the back body is positioned between the front and back needle beds, and the boundary of the left front body and the back body is rotated toward the back needle bed on which the fabric part of the back body is held. After the loops of the left and right front bodies at the end on the open part side are reduced, the loops rotated toward the back needle bed are transferred to the front needle bed so that the boundary of the left front body is positioned between the front and back needle beds. Then, the joining of the body tubular part and the sleeve tubular parts starts.
In the other method, the boundaries of the front and back knitted fabrics of the left and right front bodies are rotated toward the back needle bed on which the knitted fabric of the back body are held. After the loops at the end on the open part side of the left and right front bodies are reduced, the loops rotated toward the back needle bed are transferred to the front needle bed so that the boundaries of the left and right front bodies are positioned between the front and back needle beds. Then, the joining of the body tubular part and the sleeve tubular parts starts.
Patent Document 1: Pamphlet of International Publication No. 2002/070800